Home Alone

Yang sends me a text message that reads

My son just told me while sitting in the field: life is like a mirror, if you laugh, it laughs, if you cry, it cries, if you worry, it worries, if you angry, it angry.

Since he said this in Chinese I’m sure it sounds even cooler than the English translation.

Yang took the kids to Cui Ayi’s home town, about a five hour drive from Beijing. The idea was to show them another way of life, one that Yang has fond memories of from her childhood, while also giving me some peace and quiet at home.

We’ve lived in our apartment for three years now and between the kids, the ayis, and the mother-in-law, the house is almost never empty. It’s hard for me to remember the last time I was in the house for more than a couple of hours without someone around and while it’s not a problem per say, it is also nice to be able to have free reign once in a while. To get something from the fridge without stepping aside the always cooking ayi, to turn on the TV in the living room, to leave dishes in the sink and just have them sit until I am ready to wash them. Yang knows I like this kind of peace and every six months or so has emptied out the house for me, for an afternoon anyway. I can’t think of a time Yang and I have been alone in the house for more than a few minutes and of this I think I would remember.

This time Yang took the kids away for three nights and today, Tuesday, I actually get to be the only one in the house for the entire day. Yesterday, the whole troop was around until the head for the countryside in the morning and tomorrow our other ayi will come in the afternoon to prep for the troop’s arrival on Thursday.

My day alone is not so different. I wake up, go for a run, work, eat, go for a walk, sleep. But it is of course missing something. Aidan doesn’t come in asking if he can play computer games. Lydia’s friends still call and stop by as much looking for her. Elisa isn’t angling to get herself more ice cream or candy.  And Yang isn’t around to connect everyone together.

But its not so bad, missing them doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy my time alone. This is not a one thing or the other thing type of thing, it is one of those things where many things can be true all at the same time. By Thursday I’ll be missing them terribly, but on a Tuesday night with a tub of popcorn and 30 Rock on the TV, well, that ain’t bad.